News | Sean Edward

Kagemusha…

Kagemusha. Pencil on watercolour paper. 40cm x 50cm. カゲムシャ. 鉛筆と水彩用の紙で描きました.
Details and a larger image can be found here in the gallery.

新潟日報夕刊 UP!

先日発行された新潟日報夕刊の記事です。このリンクからご覧になれます。Thank you! ショーン。

Translation;

Being creative with Shrines and Temples.

Sean came to Japan 5 years ago from Tasmania, Australia. Recently he has been producing art works based on shrines and temples (in Joetsu city, Niigata). During times when not taking English lessons, or when on weekends away from the conversation school where he works, he spends his time focused on his art work. Last year in September, he had his first exhibition and has plans for a second this coming December. His dream being to one day make a living from his art.

Using pencils and watercolour, he describes the tiles and wood in fine detail, rendering the scenes in deformed 3D to emphasise and immerse. Some of his influences come from Japanese manga; like Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira and Matsumoto Taiyo’s Tekkon Kinkreet. In Joetsu city, he can walk and plan his images, drawing inspiration from the roadside rocks and trees, moss and the long history of the area. In his words, he describes it as “shinpiteki”: mysterious in Japanese.

Since he was young, he has enjoyed drawing. He attended the local university art school, majoring in design and was employed at a design office soon after graduation. There he helped produce web content until the company unfortunately went bankrupt. For about 1 year following, he engaged in freelance design, but found the commercial work limiting creatively, and his enthusiasm for design was soon extinguished.

While considering his future, he recalled advice his parents had given him about broadening his horizons. An opportunity to attend an interview for a large English conversation school in Japan gave him a chance to do so.

While a child he had always had a keen interest in things Japanese; watching Astroboy during the 80’s animation boom, and having an interest in package design during his studies at art school; describing the many wrapped layers of souvenirs as like that of an onion.

The conversation school sent him to Joetsu. A peaceful city similar in size and atmosphere to his hometown, where he soon met other creative people, including illustrators and musicians, also pursuing their arts.

In May 2009, he married his girlfriend of 4 years; Ayako, and he said with some jest, “I plan on living here at the moment”.

Last year, in Australia, he had his first exhibition with an old friend and artist, displaying about 20 pieces based on popular Japanese monster and hero TV series. After some success, and after returning to Joetsu city, he decided to pursue art seriously and immediately went about setting up a studio for his new work. Now, based in Joetsu, he is able to walk around his local area sourcing material for his next exhibition. He currently keeps a blog and regularly updates on his progress; receiving approx. 300 hits a month. He is positive about the future, and hopes to share more of his art with both local audiences and those abroad.

TeraMachi (Town of Temples and Shrines)

Finally, after 2 months of (not so solid) work, Teramachi is finished! I have been really looking forward to finishing this one…even more so to moving onto something else (probably smaller, with less shrines, and very little detail). Hope you enjoy. I will upload some detail shots into the gallery too, so feel free to check them out. Cheers. Sean.

Making contact…

Al Ouchtomsky kindly sent me an email with some images of his fantastic sculpture and collage work the other day. He is an accomplished artist with some great sci-fi inspired work; made with a combination of recycled materials, toys, putty and a great imagination. You can check out his blog here.

Kiyoshi Awazu…

Kiyoshi Awazu is a multi-disciplined award winning designer and artist, whose work has spanned over 5 decades. He has a website with a great archive of illustrations, paintings, book and environmental design well worth a look too. The 70s, psychedelic inspired work above really got me for it’s ironically bright and cheerfully illustrated atomic bomb. Modern theme and wild palette aside, it still reminds of me of the typical Japanese woodcuts.

今日僕は怠け者。日本語のインフォメーションをコピりました。さ〜せん！kokoda.

粟津　潔さん、
1929年東京都目黒区目黒本町に生まれる。絵画・デザインを独自に学ぶ。
1955年日本宣伝美術会展・日宣美賞受賞、1958年世界フィルムポスターコンペランス最優秀賞などを経て、1969年粟津デザイン研究室 <現 (有)粟津デザイン室>設立。

以降もグラフィックデザイナーとしてデザインの第一線で活躍する傍ら、建築・音楽・文学・映像など様々なジャンルを超えたアーティストらと共に都市設計・博覧会設計・映画制作なども行い、その活動・作品歴、及び発表は多岐に渡る。
1997-98年には、ポーランド共和国・４都市４国立美術館にて大回顧展を開催。近年ではデザインの原点である視覚伝達（ビジュアルコミュニケーション）に着眼し、象形文字・ロックアートなどを追究し、さまざまな方法を用いて発表を展開している。

It’s Tristan time!